To schedule large hourly workforces (for example call center agents), most companies utilize Workforce Management (WFM) software-based products that provide forecasting and scheduling capability. The forecasting capabilities typically utilize analytics against historical patterns of demand to predict future demand. An example of a typical WFM system architecture is shown in FIG. 1.
However, WFM systems have a limited ability to deal with situations where the actual demand or supply of agents differs from what has been forecast. For example, if the WFM system forecasts a demand of 200 agents for a given day, and schedules 200 agents accordingly, but the actual demand is 225 agents and only 175 show up to work, the system can do little to enable the company to adjust for the unexpected gap of 50 for that day, beyond offer reporting tools to track staffing level gaps.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved workforce management technology.